


Too Close to Home

by TheDarkivist



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Case Fic, Death, Gavin Reed Redemption, M/M, Murder Mystery, Or Is It?, Pining, Slowburn but every time Gavin pines it gets faster, Suicide, Swearing, THERE WAS ONLY ONE BED, cosy mystery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-01
Updated: 2020-05-24
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:08:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 17,408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23950582
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheDarkivist/pseuds/TheDarkivist
Summary: Connor and Gavin are stranded in the middle of nowhere. It's cold. It's getting dark. And it seems they're dealing with a murderer. Can they untangle this mystery? And more importantly - can they do it together?
Relationships: Connor/Gavin Reed
Comments: 48
Kudos: 212





	1. These Things Take Time

The layer of freshly fallen snow crunched under Gavin’s feet, as he stomped through the dark forest, fists stuck in his pockets. The white bullshit kept falling as steadily as the stream of curses coming from the detective’s mouth.

“-most advanced prototype of an _idiot_ , goddamn android sent by CyberFuckMyShitUp, of all the stupid fucks-”

Connor cleared his throat. “I’m beginning to suspect you are unhappy with the current situation, detective.”

“Wow. _Now_ you’re talking. Why didn’t you tell me to take a different route? The car is done for.”

It had to be some kind of a cruel cosmic joke. First, he had to attend that bullshit training way too far from Detroit with the bootleg Barbie know-it-all and then the car decided to give up on them in the middle of fucking nowhere.

“Perhaps you might recall that I suggested a different route several times before you told me to shut my fucking piehole which was both very rude and incorrect, since, as you know, my model is not-”

“Yea, yea, you don’t eat, I know. If I freeze to death here, I’ll haunt you every second Wednesday of the month.”

“That’s not much.”

“Don’t flatter yourself, it’s not like you’re the only one on my list.”

The android didn’t respond. After a while of walking in relative silence, Gavin glanced over his shoulder to check the other was still following him. It wouldn’t do to lose him there. Anderson would skin him alive if he let anything happen to his adopted son.

Connor’s face was schooled into its usual neutral expression but his cheeks were tinged with blue. Irritation or cold? Could androids get cold?

“You all right there?” he asked quietly.

Connor wasn’t paying any attention to him, brown eyes fixed somewhere behind Gavin.

“Hey, I asked you something, dipshit.”

“Light.”

“What?”

He grabbed Gavin by the shoulders and turned him around, pointing at something Gavin couldn’t see in the dark, no matter how he strained his eyes. “There’s a house over there. Maybe someone in there could help us.”

Gavin’s first instinct was to shake off the android’s hands but something stopped him. Perhaps it was the cold that made him stay still, basking in the warmth radiating from his hands.

Yeah. The cold.

* * *

  
  


The forest thinned out, revealing an old house in front of them, its many windows blinking with inviting amber glow. Gavin knocked at the door. The door flew open almost immediately and the two detectives found themselves face to face with a man. He could be around seventy, short, with wavy grey hair, and he wore a bulky green sweater and faded jeans.

“How may I help you, gentlemen?”

Rubbing the back of his neck, Gavin glanced around at Connor. He could only hope the man wasn’t against androids as much as he himself had been, once. “Hi, sorry to intrude, but our car broke down and we were wondering if you knew about a mechanic nearby.”

“This late? And in this weather? Absolutely not.” He stepped back and invited them inside with a gesture. “You both look right about to freeze. I’ll tell you what – we’ve got a free room upstairs. You can stay overnight and I’ll send one of the girls to take a look at your car tomorrow.”

Gavin entered first, cautiously. There was nothing suspicious about the house or the man, but in his experience, people were seldom that welcoming without a reason. But the outside was freezing, the inside toasty. He’d chance it.

The hall was large, with mosaic tile floor and warm yellow walls covered in framed photos. He could see several dark wooden doors and a large staircase leading to the upper floor.

“I’m, uh, Gavin Reed and this is-”

“Hello, my name is Connor, and I’m the… Connor Anderson. Pleased to meet you, sir.”

“Liam Sykora. Just Liam is fine.”

A woman’s voice sounded from the top of the stairs. “Liam? Who’s that?”

“Visitors!” Little wrinkles multiplied around the man’s eyes when he smiled. “That would be Jade.”

Jade walked down the stairs, though, judging by the sound alone, she might as well had been falling down. Young and pretty, with a medium-length platinum blonde bob and features a little too symmetrical to be human. The blue LED on her temple only confirmed the apparent. AX400, if Gavin had to guess.

Liam patted her elbow. “Connor, Gavin, this is Jade. Jade, this is Connor and Gavin. Car problems. Could you tell Katie to prepare a guest room for them? I need to get back to the kitchen.”

Jade gave a shrug with a sour expression that Liam either didn’t see or chose to ignore. “Yea. I’ll meet you there.” With that, she wandered off again.

Liam shook his head, still smiling. “Come with me. At least you can tell me what are two guys like you doing in a shithole like this.”

  
  


* * *

  
  


Someone kept the kitchen meticulously clean, like an operating theatre, but that didn’t make it any less cosy. It was cheerful, with bundles of dried herbs hanging from the ceiling, and a lazy cat sleeping on the window.

A mug of steaming hot coffee landed in front of Gavin, and a mug of android-friendly tea in front of Connor. Liam was in a good mood, chatting distractedly about this and that as if they’d been old friends. He told them about how he used to work in finances until he retired, happy to leave the city for the peace and quiet of the countryside and how he lived there with his girls.

The ‘girls’ he mentioned, were two – Jade, hired about a year ago, not long after the Revolution to help around the garden, and Katie, Liam’s niece, just eighteen. They already had another guest that evening, Liam’s brother David. When he mentioned him, he trailed off, and when he spoke up next, he changed the topic completely.

The cat stirred and approached Gavin. He offered it his fingers to sniff, but it ignored them and headbutted his hand, demanding pets. Smiling despite himself, the detective stroked the spot between its ears as the cat closed its eyes and started purring.

He glanced up and noticed Connor was watching them intently. On an impulse, he reached out and took the other’s hand to guide it towards the cat. Connor placed his hand on its back, stroking it with the tips of his fingers, carefully, almost reverently. The cat stirred and flopped onto her side.

“Hello, beautiful, you’re so pretty, such a good kitty,” Connor whispered, almost too softly for anyone else to hear. That, and other sweet nothings spilled out of his lips as easily as if complimenting animals was his only purpose in life.

“I hope Circe isn’t bothering you,” Liam said over his shoulder, confusing Connor who found his new friend delightful.

“No, she isn’t. She’s very sweet.”

“She’s an attention whore,” someone said from the kitchen door. Gavin turned around to see the newcomer, but he still saw Connor cover the cat’s ears so she wouldn’t hear that remark. Cute.

Gavin paused. Cute? No, he didn’t mean to think that.

He really, really didn’t.

The person at the door had to be Katie. A sweet kind of a girl – short with dark, freckled skin and wavy chestnut hair framing a round, pleasant face.

“You must be Gavin and Connor. I’m Kate.” She sat on the edge of the table and reached over to pet Circe. “I’ll show you your room after dinner, all right? I turned the heat on, but it’s cold as fuck there even on a good day. Sorry ‘bout that.”

“That’s perfectly fine,” Connor assured her, polite as always. “Thank you, miss, we’re sorry to be a bother.”

“Don’t say that. It’s nice to talk to someone new. Uncle is probably thrilled to meet someone who hasn’t heard all of his jokes yet.”

“Sure I am! You and Jade are horrible audience.”

Connor wrapped his fingers around his mug, watching the exchange with an emotion he couldn’t quite place, although he suspected it to be homesickness. The tea did nothing for him, taste-wise but he welcomed the warmth and the feeling of being included.

“So, you’re an android?” Katie asked.

He nodded slowly. “That’s the information I received.”

She grinned at him. “David’s gonna _flip_. Can’t stand them, but nobody can’t stand him either, so, like, don’t worry about him. Jade is usually way nicer but this dude could make Dalai Lama Dalai deck him.”

Liam shook his head. “Katie, what did I tell you about telling the truth about our relatives?”

“That my honesty is my most endearing quality,” she replied, laughing.

“Sounds like something I might say. Go set the table, will you?”

The woman pressed a quick peck to the top of Circe’s head and left, humming. Such a sweet, domestic scene. It put Gavin on the edge.

He didn’t trust sweet.

  
  


* * *

  
  


Everyone gathered in the dining room. Everyone, except David, the person Gavin was most curious about. It didn’t seem like anyone else missed him. Liam turned out to be an excellent cook. He made a big pot of chilli, served with bread Katie baked that same afternoon. A pity Connor couldn’t try it.

But Connor seemed content in his own way, sitting on a couch at the side of the room with Jade, a cat sleeping on his lap. They were in the middle of a lively discussion – about what, Gavin couldn’t tell, but it made Jade smile. He almost told them to speak up and share what’s so funny with the class, but restrained himself. It was none of his business.

“God, now there’s two of these.”

So _that_ was David. He was significantly younger than his brother, perhaps in his mid-forties. The disgust on his face when looking at Connor and Jade was evident, but then, he wasn’t trying to hide it. Jade only rolled her eyes at that while the android detective ignored him, his features schooled into strained blankness.

He sank onto the empty chair opposite Liam, next to Gavin, and started scooping up chilli.

“You’re that poor bastard that got stranded here?”

Gavin ran a hand through his hair, already dishevelled beyond help, and nodded. “Yeah. Serves me right for driving in this weather.”

“God, tell me about it. I gotta dash first thing tomorrow and if it doesn’t stop snowing soon, the roads will be proper fucked.”

“Your optimism is admirable,” Liam laughed, his voice a little strangled. “How about we have a drink and hope for the best? Connor, can you drink alcohol? Or can I get you something else?”

Connor shook his head with that boyish smile that made people of certain age want to adopt him. “No, thank you. You’re very kind.”

“What are the plastics doing here, again?” David asked.

Just seven words and the atmosphere turned sour. Liam got drinks for Gavin and himself. Only then he poured one for David and set the glass on the table with more force than necessary. “Jade’s home here and Connor is my guest, so I’d appreciate it if you stopped acting like an idiot. For once.”

He snatched the drink and knocked it back. “I’m just saying it like it is.” He looked at Gavin, as if looking for support. “Fucking plastics got more rights than decent, hard-working people in this country.”

Jade stood up and stormed out of the dining room. Katie shot everyone an apologetic smile and followed. Gavin barely noticed that, transfixed by Connor’s reaction. The younger detective remained seated on the sofa, his hands mechanically stroking the cat’s fur but Gavin didn’t miss the emotion that flashed across his features.

Hurt.

The android detective was more than capable of defending himself, if it came down to it, but Gavin suspected he didn’t want to start anything for the sake of their host, because he was just too damn polite for his own good. A flaw that Gavin, he was pleased to say, didn’t share.

“You can either shut the fuck up, or we can take it outside. Your choice.”

He glared at David, the challenge clear. The other man looked away first.

“That’s what I thought.”

Liam stood up. He looked tired. “Now, that’s quite enough of that. It’s been a long day. David, can you wait for me in the living room? There’s something I need to talk to you about, but I need to do the dishes first.”

Connor got up to his feet, to Circe’s audible displeasure. “Allow me to help.”

“Oh, don’t worry about that. You two must be tired. Katie will show you your room.” Liam managed a weak smile. “If you find her, that is.”

The evening was well and proper ruined, but at least it was coming to its end.

  
  


* * *

  
  


They eventually found Katie who was trying to comfort Jade, and made it to the guest room. The young woman had been right, the room was cold despite the best efforts of the portable heater below the window. Even so, it was cosy and it even had a small adjacent bathroom. Best of all, they weren’t outside, caught in the middle of the snowstorm.

Gavin could just drop and sleep for three days straight as the exhaustion of the day finally caught up with him.

There was only one problem.

“There is only one bed,” Connor pointed out, rather unnecessarily.

“Trust me, I noticed.” God, he was too tired for this shit. The bed dipped as he sat down, rubbing the scar between his eyes.

In another world, he might welcome the excuse for closeness. To rest easily, knowing the rest was well-deserved. To put his head on the pillow and reach out, knowing another’s hand would meet his. To sleep, knowing he was someone else, someone who didn’t screw up everything just to make sure that it would be his own doing, not somebody else’s choice.

He could be nice if he wanted to.

He could.

Really.

“Since when do _you_ sleep?” Gavin snorted.

Connor was standing in front of him, looking oddly out of place. He belonged to the city. His effortless perfection clashed with the background of faded floral wallpaper and well-loved wooden furniture. Deviancy was meant to disturb that perfection, grind off that fine polish a little. It failed spectacularly. All those flaws accomplished was that Connor seemed a little less out of reach and that was somehow much, much worse.

“I do not sleep in the human sense of the word, but most of my automated maintenance takes place when I’m in stasis. Moreover, low temperatures may have a negative impact on some of my functions, and so it makes more sense for me to use the bed than not.”

The other detective grinned in response. “So you’re telling me that cold makes you stupid?”

Connor responded with a small, indignant huff that made him laugh. “That is not-”

“I know.” He looked away and shrugged, trying to seem more relaxed than he really felt. “It’s just kind of weird for us to share.”

“The proximity isn’t much different from when we are in the same car, detective.”

“I’m too tired to argue with you about this, but I’ll have you know that if I wasn’t, I’d win,” Gavin joked as he got up to his feet and made his way to the bathroom.

  
  


* * *

  
  


The lights were already off when he returned, but Connor’s LED guided him to the bed. Gavin, stripped down to his boxer shorts and almost clean t-shirt, was only too happy to crawl under the blankets.

“You asleep?”

“As I stated previously, detective, I do not-”

“Lemme try again. You trying to prevent getting stupid?”

Connor laughed and Gavin would give anything to see his face in that moment.

“Yes, that’s what I’m trying to accomplish here.”

Silence. Gavin smashed his face into the cool pillow, which carried a faint smell of dried lavender and disuse. He watched Connor – more of a shadow, a faint body-shaped outline in the dark – as his chest rose and fell in a perfect imitation of human breathing. It was comforting and he liked to simply observe the android without the pressure to react or come (jump, really) to any conclusions.

“Is something the matter, detective?”

All right, maybe he wasn’t as inconspicuous as he had hoped. He turned his back towards the other and closed his eyes, but he could still feel the warm, curious eyes on the back of his head.

“Connor?”

“Yes?”

“What that guy said about you… about androids, it was bullshit. Some humans are dicks, but you don’t have to put up with it.”

The sheets rustled softly and the mattress shifted as Connor sat up, his eyes fixed on the human. “It’s nothing new to me, detective. After all, you yourself said the same and worse things to me.”

And just like that Gavin was wide awake. “But you know that I don’t really mean this shit.”

“Do I?” Connor’s tone was mild, but those two words sounded like a gunshot in the quiet bedroom.

Gavin propped himself up on his elbows, looking up to Connor, his face faintly illuminated by the yellow light of his LED. He opened his mouth to speak, but couldn’t find the right words. So he used the only ones he could think of:

“I’m sorry.”

“About what? About calling me a plastic?”

“Yeah.”

“And about calling me an inorganic idiot? An inflatable lab? A bootleg Robocop? An officer Barbie with her Dreamy Crime Scene Set? An oversized piece of Lego? A downgraded Siri? Would you like me to continue? I have enough material for a very long night and the drive home.”

“Shit, I-” Gavin buried his face in his hands. What could he say to that? He didn’t even remember some of those and he was mortified. In that moment he was pretty sure that Connor’s polite, detached voice would list off his sins when he finally croaked and found himself at the gates of Hell, if he wasn’t there already. “I didn’t know it bothered you.”

“And what were you thinking?” Connor snapped. He inhaled sharply, then dropped his head back onto the pillow, his LED alternating between yellow and red.

“Connor-”

“Sleep well, _detective_.”

“I’m sorry. Next time just tell me to fuck off, okay?”

“No. Your actions aren’t my responsibility. I’d be happy if our work relationship improved, but the effort can’t be one-sided. I appreciate how you intervened... earlier, but there is no guarantee it wasn’t an outlier in your otherwise consistent behaviour towards me. I hope you understand.”

Gavin left that without an answer. After a few minutes, or maybe days, Connor’s LED cycled back to its usual blue, so he was probably asleep. Doing maintenance. Whatever.

He himself couldn’t sleep even though he was tired enough to cry because Connor’s words wouldn’t stop ringing in his ears. Then the memories came. Half-buried recollections of… other times. Other insults. Some more creative, some less. Some of them he even meant seriously. Many of them. More than could be forgiven.

In the privacy of that dark, quiet room, Gavin came face to face with the person he had been not that long ago and the disgust that man inspired in him took his breath away.

  
  


  
  


* * *

  
  


Gavin didn’t really wake up. He just became less unconscious. Unfamiliar faded blue ceiling. The unexpected warmth of a body pressed against his side. He blinked. The memories started slowly returning to him. The car breaking down. Liam, Jade, Katie and David. And Connor. And Connor. And _Connor_.

“Oh fuck.”

Did last night really happen?

He hazarded a glance to his side. The android was lying on his back with his hands folded atop the blankets, eyes closed, lips parted slightly. A few strands of dark hair fell over his eyes and Gavin’s fingers itched to reach out and brush them away. In another world, in one in which they didn’t have a past, it might be nice to wake up like that.

He passed his hand over his face, trying to pinpoint the moment he lost all control over the wreck that was his life. Carefully, so that he wouldn’t disturb the android, he got up and padded over the carpeted floor to find something clean enough to wear in his bag. A sweater. Great. Sweaters count as clean until they can crawl into the washing machine by themselves.

Through a gap in the striped curtains he could see everything had turned white overnight. Screw getting the car to work, they’d be lucky to _find_ it under all that snow.

Fuck.

Another morning filled with excellent news.

A shriek coming from the centre of the house shattered the quiet stillness of the early morning.

  
  



	2. How Soon Is Now

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The thick plottens! Big thanks to Chenny who enabled this, and to Lily who listens to me bitch about writing being hard ♥ This chapter contains… a whole lotta stuff! But there is some speculative science in this that I based on current trends in crime scene investigation practices sprinkled in.  
> (Also, there is technically only one chapter left, but I’ll admit it now: I dun goofed and there might be two. Sorry for the inconvenience!)

Gavin made it downstairs at the same time as Katie, Connor following closely behind. Not even the android could sleep… _fine_ , stay in stasis through the blood-curdling scream.

There was a loud bang as Jade shut the door to a room situated next to the kitchen. Her head was bent low, one hand clutching the handle, the other resting against the door. Silence. Katie approached her and cautiously touched Jade’s elbow to get her attention.

The other shook her head, her movements stiff and jerky. “Don’t go in.”

“What’s… what’s going on?” the girl demanded to know, her grip on Jade’s elbow tightening.

A blood red light flashed through the curtain of platinum hair. “Don’t go in. Don’t go in. Don’t. Go in. Don’t go. In. Don’t. Go. In. Don’t go in.” She looked over her shoulder, her eyes flitting between Katie, Gavin and Connor. “Liam, he’s. Not well.”

Connor walked past the other detective without sparing a glance in his direction. He came to the two women and asked calmly: “What can I do to help?”

“Liam’s not well.” She placed her hand over Katie’s, gently removing it from her arm. “You two are with the police, right? You called the other guy detective. Like, every two sentences.”

“Yes, that’s correct,” Connor replied, speaking in a soothing tone. It fascinated Gavin how easily talking to people came to him in situations like that. No hesitation. Gavin had been envious of that sometimes, too. The android always seemed so _earnest_ , like there was nothing he’d rather to than help, if only the other person would let him. There was art to that. “We’ll take a look inside, all right?”

And it worked. At last, Jade released her hold on the door and stepped back. Gavin let out a breath he didn’t realise he’d been holding. Connor straightened up and finally turned to his coincidental partner. “Are you coming?”

  
  


  
  


* * *

  
  


  
  


Gavin wouldn’t look at the couch. Not yet.

The living room was a spacious, old-fashioned affair with a fireplace and bookshelves completely covering one of the walls. It had been a while since Gavin had seen so many physical books in one place. A diverse collection, too. No TV. Thick brown carpet. A single window opening into that dreary, miserable winter hellscape.

The fireplace was cold and didn’t seem to be used much, unless you counted the mantelpiece as another surface to cover with framed photos. Liam did, apparently. There were pictures of varying ages – pictures of a much younger Katie, several of Liam and David and a pretty woman with red curly hair. Pictures of Liam surrounded by other men around his age on a fishing trip. A little polaroid picture of Liam and Jade trying to give Circe a bath. Happy. Happy. Happy.

Facing the fireplace was an old couch, and on the couch-

Gavin took note of the coffee table. A beat-up paperback copy of William Gibson’s _Idoru_. He wouldn’t look to the left. Two empty glasses and an empty bottle of whiskey. This was more than they should be handling on their own. A sealed bag of cat treats.

A body on the couch.

He took out his phone only to realise with a groan that it didn’t get any service there. Normally, the place would be crawling with crime scene investigators in their white gear by the time Gavin was called – but this scene was still quiet, undisturbed like the freshly fallen layer of snow outside.

Almost in a daze he approached the body on the couch. There was no doubt Liam was dead. The round, oddly symmetrical wound in his right temple and a handgun that had slipped from his already stiffening fingers gave the detective a fair idea of what had happened. There was slight movement as the watch around Liam’s wrist kept slicing a second after second from the future that could no longer touch the old man.

If only he could believe his eyes.

“What do you think?”

Connor raised his eyebrows slightly as if taken aback by the question. “This appears to be a suicide.”

Gavin pinched the bridge of his nose. “I can fucking tell-” He stopped himself and took a deep breath. “Sorry. Can you see anything I should know about?”

“We should contact someone.”

“I would if I could get any fucking service here. Can you?”

At that Connor seemed to deflate. He didn’t say anything, but he didn’t even need to. Under different circumstances, Gavin might react to that with glee but now it only drove home how utterly isolated they were.

“Okay. Had to ask.”

“This is a very irregular situation, detective.”

“Gavin.”

“Excuse me?”

“I have a name, dipshit.”

“So do I. You are welcome to use it in lieu of… other options.”

Gavin narrowed his eyes and glanced over his shoulder at the other detective. “Are you making fun of me?”

The other tilted his head to the side, giving the other a wide-eyed look, confused innocence personified: “I wouldn’t dare, _Gavin_.”

Trust Connor to make his name sound good. Really, he could get used to it – he’d be happy to get used to it, in fact. He cleared his throat and turned away, jamming his hands into his pockets. “Let’s see what we can do before anyone makes it here. Except… I don’t know. Something’s fishy. I know it looks like a suicide, but for some reason I really don’t want to say it is one.”

“This is a natural reaction to-”

“Connor, no. That’s not what I mean. Something’s off here but I can’t put my finger on it.”

The android nodded. “You noticed it too, then. Though I would strongly recommend you do not put your finger on anything in the room. It could contaminate the evidence.”

“Smart-ass.”

“Detective.”

Connor wondered if Reed was conscious of the shift in his behaviour in those past few minutes. When they entered the room, it was as if he was somewhere else. A completely different place, though not necessarily a better one. Now he was thinking about it, the human had been acting strange last night as well, even if the reason behind that eluded Connor.

The other detective relaxed somewhat now, more in his element when there was something to _do_. And perhaps the light bickering helped too.

Maybe Connor started it on purpose.

But nobody could prove that.

Reed seemed to have taken their discussion from yesterday to heart and while Connor doubted those attempts at civility would last, he dared to hope against hope that they might be able to cooperate at least until they got back home.

He stepped closer. “You wanted to know whether I can see anything useful. I can’t promise it will lead anywhere, but I believe it is strange that the wound is located on the right side, considering Liam was left-handed.”

“Was he?” Gavin clicked his fingers. “Right. The watch.”

Connor wanted to say no, it was several little things, and also the fact he simply noticed details humans usually missed, but the other looked so proud of himself that he just didn’t have the heart. “Yes, the watch.”

There were two options in front of them. They could attempt to preserve the scene until they managed to get a team to the location. However, there was no way to tell how long that might take. For all Connor knew, the body might start decomposing first. The possibility of someone tampering with the evidence would also grow should they choose to wait.

They could attempt to conduct the investigation on their own. There was an extremely narrow circle of suspects and all of them were under the same roof, with limited means of escaping. Were they to catch the killer, such a course of action could later complicate the trial, but with proper documentation of their steps and a skilled prosecutor, they should still be able to make a case. On top of that, he had tools at his disposal that human detectives did not.

To tell the truth, Connor didn’t like either option, but after careful consideration, it seemed that they would lose more by waiting. Only now he had to convince detective Reed-

“Hey, Connor, do you think you could do your CSI thing here?”

Oh. No convincing needed.

“Of course. But first we need to ensure nobody gets in here and we should probably talk to everyone before I get started here.” He looked at the other man, unsure whether he’d take Connor’s suggestion in the spirit in which it was intended or whether he’d take that as a ‘plastic telling him what to do’. “If you agree,” he added softly.

The human detective stared at him for several seconds before he shrugged and headed to the door. “Yea, sure, fine with me.”

Connor followed suit, though he couldn’t but marvel at how different that situation was from his usual cases. He had watched several crime shows with Hank who found them hilarious for some mysterious reason. They had little in common with standard police work. In Connor’s experience, when they found a corpse with a knife sticking out of it, they’d usually find the person responsible in the same building, or in the nearest alley, still covered in evidence. No books with pages soaked in slow-acting poison, no glass balls filled with toxic gas that would be designed to shatter during a specific aria sang by a particular opera singer, no tigers lured into the room of a paralysed victim, no sudden revelations.

He was beginning to suspect those stories weren’t supposed to be realistic and now he was trapped in one of them.

With detective Reed, of all people.

  
  


  
  


* * *

  
  


  
  


They found Katie and Jade still waiting outside, sitting on the stairs. Jade’s stress levels had dropped down somewhat, although her LED was still yellow. Katie had one arm around her shoulders and it was clear she was trying to stay calm.

She raised her head when they entered the hallway. Gavin shook his head and the girl burst into tears.

Connor watched his partner squat in front of the two women, looking more serious than in… he honestly couldn’t recall that without accessing some pretty vintage files. In theory, he knew they didn’t let you be a detective if you were simultaneously stupid _and_ a ‘humongous dick’, but he never really got the opportunity to observe him in action.

“I’m sorry for your loss,” Reed began. “I know this is not a good time, but we need to make sure nobody goes inside until detective Anderson and I take care of everything. Do you know if there’s a key to the living room?”

The girl wiped her eyes and sniffled. “I think there is one, but I don’t know where it is. Did… did uncle do this to himself?”

Nobody other than Connor would notice the slight twitch of his partner’s eyebrow. He went on speaking in a low, matter-of-fact tone. “Looks like it, but I can’t tell you for sure just yet. This is considered to be something we call unnatural death and it’s standard practice to investigate all of these, to make sure nothing was overlooked. Makes sense?”

Katie nodded, rubbing her eyes like a child and Connor was reminded that eighteen wasn’t all that much by human standards. She turned to Jade and gave her a small, sad smile. “Do what you must.”

“Okay. We’ll have to ask you all a couple of routine questions later, but now we need the key.”

Jade tilted her head, looking somewhere behind Gavin’s left shoulder. “I think it’s in the junk drawer in the kitchen. Liam keeps a bunch of old keys in there because of Circe. She knocks down anything that’s not nailed down.” She got to her feet, but there was unusual stiffness to her movement as if she were running on autopilot. “I’ll go get it.”

Connor went with her her since detective Reed had the situation under control and there was a chance one of the women might reveal something once separated. He found her rummaging through one of the drawers under the counter, simply throwing on the floor anything that wasn’t shaped like a key. The responses of different individuals to stress varied but judging by what they’d witnessed, Jade was the type to shut down completely. No point in pushing. Yet.

“You were close with Liam.”

A novelty lighter landed on the floor. “He’s easy to like. Was. It usually takes me ages to warm up to someone, but he was always so…” She turned around, a rusty key in hand. “Some people try to be good to us, but it always comes off so condescending. Liam wasn’t like that. He was just a really good guy.” Jade scrunched up her nose. “I should wake David. And make breakfast. Check on the chickens. Feed Circe. Does that partner of yours like eggs? I don’t really get the appeal but Katie loves them.”

Once she started listing off her to-do list, her stress levels dropped and she handed the key to Connor who was standing there with his mouth open, unsure how to explain that Gavin was _not_ his partner, that he usually didn’t even like him except when he was joking around, when he was trying to be considerate, when he asked for Connor’s opinion and actually _listened_ to him and…

… maybe he needed to take a page out of Jade’s book and get back to work.

  
  


  
  


* * *

  
  


  
  


The only constant of crime scene investigation was that there were so many variables that a detective could never presume anything. Every scene required different approach, different experts and the truth was that there was no set order for what would happen when. Sometimes they needed an entomologist before a pathologist and sometimes someone for blood spatter analysis before anyone else.

Well, they only had Connor there which both simplified and complicated everything.

Gavin had already begun taking as many shots of the scene as his ancient Nokia would allow while Connor had simply turned on his video recorder so they had enough references for what the room looked like before they moved anything.

The android detective approached the dead man and reached for the gun when the other spoke up.

“Talk me through what you’re doing.”

He looked at Reed and tilted his head to the side in confusion. “Hank only needs the results.”

Gavin bristled up at that. “I know it’s fucking tragic, but I’m not Anderson.”

“What I’m trying to say, detective, is that I can’t see how this would be of any use to you. Unless you enjoy listening to my voice, that is.”

The other inhaled sharply, stuck his hands in his pockets and turned away, the slightest tint of red on his cheeks. “Yea, whatever helps you sleep at night, tin- Connor. Can you do it or not?”

A quick glance around the room revealed several items that could yield valuable clues but he didn’t expect Reed would be interested in watching the process so closely. “Anything in particular you’d like me to start with?”

“Actually, yea, can you do GSR analysis?”

Connor froze on the spot. “I...” He cleared his throat. Now it was him who started blushing and he cursed CyberLife for giving him _this_ ability instead of something actually useful. “I don’t know how.”

“What the fuck do you mean by that? I thought you had like a whole goddamn lab expansion pack.” Gavin seemed surprised rather than irritated which was honestly more than Connor hoped for when he told him.

“I wasn’t really equipped for it. Normally I could download the information separately but, as I said, I get no signal here. I could do _some_ analysis and at least look for the presence of gunpowder in the usual way-”

“You’re not licking any corpses.”

“Fine, I’ll try not to.”

Gavin bit his lip and it was clear he was trying not to laugh. Some humans, Connor mused, could look oddly attractive when biting their lips and Gavin… Gavin certainly wasn’t one of them. But now he was fighting the urge to laugh and he had to think Connor was absolutely _stupid_ because he wasn’t able to do something as basic as GSR analysis, when there were several good reasons why the ability wasn’t included and while he _wasn’t_ about to go on a rant about it-

“You have to understand, detective, gunshot residue has been proven to be too unreliable for the purposes of criminal investigation and there has been a decrease in usage in the past thirty or so years, therefore it wasn’t deemed necessary for me to have. I can do vein pattern recognition though. If you had any use for that.”

Oops.

Gavin blinked slowly. “Firstly, it’s fine, we’ll work with what we have. Secondly, what the _fuck_ is vein pattern recognition? Thirdly, I don’t actually want to know what vein pattern recognition is. What can you tell me about the gun?”

The android detective reached out to pick it up, but then thought better of it, and squatted down in front of the couch to observe it without touching it. “A customized M1911A-2. I can’t tell you if it’s registered unless I get somewhere where the signal is better, but I can tell you it’s a very common type. There...” Connor scrunched his brows, trying to process what the scan was telling him. Gavin was watching him – he didn’t say anything but he was tapping his foot impatiently. “Gavin?”

“Spit it out.”

“There are no fingerprints.”

They stared at each other for several seconds as Gavin lowered himself to be on Connor’s level, subconsciously mirroring the android’s posture. “Let me get that straight. A left-handed man shot himself with his right hand without leaving any fingerprints.”

“That’s what it looks like, yes. Humans are genuinely impressive sometimes.” A little, earnest smile was tugging at the corners of Connor’s lips, and Gavin was dead sure he was trying to be funny. Scratch that – he _was_ funny. He always had been, in that strange, dry way and he could kick himself for not noticing it earlier.

He opened his mouth before his brain could intervene and ruin it for everyone, again: “You know, a smile looks really-”

 _-pretty on you_ , he meant to say, but they were interrupted by a soft, tentative knock on the door. Gavin straightened up and quickly turned away from Connor, only now realising what he almost said just then.

“Yeah? Who’s there?”

“Jade.” There was a slight pause. “It’s about David.”

“Best I go there,” Gavin said quietly. “Is it okay if I leave this to you?”

Connor stood up and absent-mindedly smoothed down his trousers. A quick nod. The other’s concern confused him, but even so it was appreciated. He sighed inwardly. That place was probably getting to the human and that fragile relationship wouldn’t survive their return home, even though he _liked_ this new and improved, more considerate Gavin.

But he told himself he wouldn’t mourn the fragile friendship if he prepared for its inevitable end.

(He knew he would mourn it anyway.)

  
  


  
  


* * *

  
  


  
  


Gavin found himself in the kitchen again, helping Jade with breakfast. It had been only a couple of hours since he was sitting there, talking to Liam, but that memory felt like something that had happened to somebody else.

There he was, presented with the perfect opportunity to interrogate, but he found himself hesitating. This wasn’t business as usual. If he pushed too hard, it might ruin his chances of getting any info at all and that would still be the least of his worries with a killer under the same roof.

Jade cracked another egg over the rim of an old ceramic mug. Gavin caught himself watching the swift, practised motion, thinking about the colt unmarked by fingerprints.

Best if they didn’t know Connor and Gavin suspected foul play.

“What was it about David?”

The android wouldn’t look at him, focused on her task in an almost exaggerated way. “He’s not here. I went to wake him up, but I didn’t find him and the bed looked like nobody had slept in it. His car isn’t here, either. I checked.”

There were only two people in the house who wouldn’t leave fingerprints and David wasn’t one of them.

“What? How?” His thoughts flitted over to the overwhelmingly white roads and the quiet forest. An overturned car and a man, dead. No fingerprints, aside from David’s own. And he wondered if a pattern would emerge once he put everything together. “How would he get out in this weather?”

The woman shrugged and finally turned to Gavin, leaning against the counter. Unlike Connor, she seemed right at home in the middle of nowhere. She looked like someone who wouldn’t poison themselves when picking mushrooms, had she been able to eat them.

“He’s got one of those microdick mobiles. Way too many accessories and way too much horsepower for anything except the end of the world and this weather. You know, for someone who thinks I shouldn’t have rights, he’s really attached to it.”

“You really don’t like him, do you.”

“I can’t think of a single reason why I shouldn’t like him,” she quipped back, her voice dripping with sarcasm. Did Connor feel the same way about Gavin? He had every right to and-

-he really had to stop thinking about the other detective for five minutes.

“Duly noted. What about Liam? Was he acting strangely as of late?”

A sharp inhale. Jade wasn’t expecting the change of topic, just like Gavin hoped. “What? Yes. No. He looked just fine to me.” She tucked a wayward strand of hair behind her ear. “But I’m not really… I don’t think I’d notice… I’m not great with people. That’s why I jumped at this job, you know? I wanted to go somewhere quiet. Maybe he wanted me to notice something but I just didn’t see it.” Their eyes met. Hers were brown, like Connor’s, but darker, almost black. “Do you think there was something I should’ve done?”

Raw grief lurking behind a question that didn’t have a correct answer.

He shook his head.

  
  


  
  


* * *

  
  


  
  


With Gavin gone, Connor could proceed with his analyses undisturbed, though there wasn’t much to find. Liam could be dead for about nine hours and it seemed nobody moved the body. There were no signs of struggle, meaning that he didn’t expect to die when he sat down on that couch opposite the fireplace. But would he not have reacted to the cold barrel pressed against his temple?

His eyes slid to the coffee table. The empty bottle of whiskey would suggest an explanation. Two glasses – one with Liam’s fingerprints, the other set belonging to David.

There was no sign of anything that would qualify as a suicide note, but statistically speaking, only about one third of suicide victims left one, so its absence didn’t prove anything.

Connor crossed his arms over his chest, facing the dead man, grasping at straws to make sense of the situation.

“What happened to you?” he whispered.

It was clear what he had to do next – he had to take a look around the rest of the house, see if he found any clues as to why should anyone want the old man dead. He glanced at the row of pictures on the mantelpiece – David Sykora, Katie Berkowitz, Jade Locard, a woman listed in his system as Irene Sykora née Berkowitz and Liam Sykora. It was more than likely that the last thing the old man saw before he died was his family.

That thought made something tighten in Connor’s chest, so much that he ran a quick scan on himself without even thinking. He missed Hank. He wanted to talk to him for no other reason than to hear his voice and maybe ask for advice. If the man he came to see as a father figure of sorts couldn’t give him any tips regarding the case, then maybe he could at least tell him what to do about whatever the thing going on with Gavin was called.

But he was stuck in place, cut off from everything he’d foolishly taken for granted, like signal, family and any semblance of stability. Maybe it was just detective Reed rubbing off on him but holy fucking hell he was having such a shitty time away from civilisation.

  
  


  
  


* * *

  
  


  
  


Katie showed up for breakfast with Circe in her arms, eyes red and puffy from crying. Even so, she was trying to put on a brave face and assured Gavin that she’d take a look at their car right after breakfast if one of them showed her where it was parked (read: ditched). Jade had gone almost mute, moodily writing down a to-do list for when she’d be able to get to the nearest city.

“I gotta do the shopping sometime,” she mumbled with a shrug. “I used to go with Liam. Well, I’d do the shopping, I don’t know what he was doing. I should’ve asked.”

Katie sniffled, picking at her scrambled eggs. She’d changed from her pyjamas into a grey sweatshirt that only emphasised the ashy tint of her skin. “I should’ve talked to him after David left, but I didn’t think...”

“You saw him leave?” Gavin asked casually, trying not to show just how interesting that was to him.

“Mhm. They were arguing. I heard him slam the door when I was going to my room and then later I saw him tiptoeing out. Could be around ten? Not sure. Didn’t think much of it then, they weren’t on the best of terms since aunt Irene passed and they were always arguing about one thing or another. Maybe he heard about uncle’s will? He changed it recently and, well, I don’t know if he told him, but he never made any secret of it in front of Jade and I.” The girl blinked, as if she just realised what she’d said. “The way it’s set up, it’s split between the two of us. David is only getting, like, five bucks. That’d probably piss him off.”

“Sorry, how exactly were you two related? You and Liam?” Gavin asked, sipping his coffee.

The girl set down her fork and started toying with the hem of her sleeve instead. “Well, uncle Liam wasn’t _exactly_ my uncle. Aunt Irene, who was David’s wife, was my paternal aunt but they were all pretty close until...” Katie trailed off. “I spent most of every summer here. He was really like my own uncle. I stopped seeing David when aunt died. I guess he… the family took it pretty badly, you know? They were going home from a party, both drunk. Aunt crashed the car and died before the ambulance got there. She wasn’t usually careless like that, but they’ve been fighting, so some people blamed him for her death. That’s what I heard, at least. But uncle Liam always stayed in touch. He’s the nicest person I know. Was.”

She offered Gavin a weak smile before she broke down in tears again. Jade stood up and awkwardly patted her shoulder to which the girl responded by burying her face in the android’s cardigan, her frame trembling with muffled sobs.

“You know,” Jade started gently, “I went to lock the front door around eleven and I heard him talking to Circe. The last thing he did wasn’t arguing with his brother. If that helps.”

Gavin excused himself, craving a cigarette although he’d never smoked in his life. He learned some things that he wanted to share with Connor before they could come to any sort of a conclusion and also…

He glanced at the kitchen door, thinking about the way Katie held onto Jade, like she was the only thing keeping her grounded and how it made him feel like an intruder.

  
  


  
  


* * *

  
  


  
  


Connor could process evidence at an unparalleled speed. He could effectively calculate just how much pressure to put on a suspect to get them to spill the beans as well as other assorted legumes. He could hold his own in physical combat with ease that was toeing the line between intimidating and hot. There was a real probability that his smile could make flowers grow.

But he never learnt to sit like a normal fucking person.

Gavin couldn’t but wonder if he was even aware of the fact. Possibly not. How would you even bring up something like that? ‘Hey, the way you sit looks like you’re getting lovingly scolded by your grandma for stepping on her prize-winning begonias and it’s really fucking weird.’ Yea. No.

Not really the point anyway. They met up in the guest room to compare notes and to discuss how to proceed.

Gavin plopped on the bed next to Connor and rested his elbows on his knees. They told each other everything they knew and all they could agree on was that it made zero sense.

“I think it’s time to tell them,” Gavin said after a moment of silence.

“That we suspect it wasn’t a suicide?”

“Yeah. We have to stop tiptoeing around like this if we’re to get somewhere.” He snorted. “Unless we get murdered first. It’s been that kind of a day.”

Connor took a deep breath and slumped in his seat a little. “I think it’s too late for me.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?”

The android gave a flawless impression of a kicked puppy as he looked at the other. “I think there are ants in my biocomponents. I’m literally gathering rust in here. I get zero signal. Every time I look out of any window there are _trees_ and they are getting closer. There is snow on the roads and it doesn’t even have the decency to melt. I’m… I’m experiencing some very strong feelings about the situation outside. This is my first experience with the countryside and I hate it already. I’d download a thesaurus to describe how awful this is but I can’t because there is no signal in this godforsaken place. If I see an earthworm this week, I won’t be held responsible for my actions, Gavin.”

Gavin burst out laughing until he was wheezing, tears forming in the corners of his eyes. “Can’t believe you’ve been such a dramatic bitch this entire fucking time and nobody knew.” Once he calmed down somewhat, he made the mistake of glancing at Connor’s indignant expression and he dissolved into laughter once more.

The other watched him, confused at first – but then a smile crept across his face, growing wider and wider until he couldn’t hold back laughter any longer. He laughed and laughed until his vocal unit couldn’t keep up and a discordant, static noise escaped his lips. At that, he stopped and clasped his hand over his mouth, bright blue flush glowing through the cracks in his fingers.

Connor stiffened, suddenly hyper aware their shoulders and knees were touching. He looked at Gavin from the corner of his eye, unsure how he’d react to the reminder of who Connor was. For a moment spanning the eternity before one second and the one following, Gavin didn’t move.

When he did, he reached out and moved Connor’s hand away from his mouth with uncharacteristic tenderness, maintaining eye contact, and the android found himself breathless even though he didn’t need to breathe. Gavin’s thumb accidentally brushed his cheek and the brief touch left him feeling brittle, like he was missing something he was afraid to name.

Connor pulled away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading ♥ If you’re so inclined, come say hi to me on tumblr (nohrianxscum)!


	3. Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want

When Connor pulled away, Gavin thought about closing the distance and pressing a kiss to those beautiful, parted lips. He already dug his own grave, might as well lie in it – and if Hank caught wind of what had transpired between them, he’d be easily persuaded to spread some soil over Gavin, so he could get warm and cosy with all the bad decisions that had led him to that moment.

But Connor pulled away.

Gavin ran a hand through his hair, cleared his throat and shifted in his seat so their shoulders stopped touching. The other was drawing little circles on his index finger with his thumb as if playing with an invisible coin. _Now_ Gavin made him nervous?

He got up and leaned against the wall, trying not to notice how Connor’s shoulders relaxed the second he moved away. Words burned at the back of his throat – something to say, something biting, something to put even more distance between them, but Gavin didn’t trust himself to make them come out right, not when the warmth of the other’s skin lingered on his fingertips.

The soft blue glow finally vanished from his cheeks. “If I may suggest something, it might be beneficial to try and establish the timeline, detective. The cat-”

Gavin clenched his fists. “So we’re back to that? Fuck off, Connor.”

“I don’t know what you mean.” he lied. To say the human detective looked agitated would be an understatement. His voice was like an exposed wire, a second away from becoming a danger to himself and to those around him. The android got up to his feet and raised his hands, prepared to try to defuse the situation. “Let’s not get sidetracked.”

“Don’t even try. Every fucking time I think we might… I don’t know, get along like goddamn adults, you start with this ‘if I may, detective’ bullshit and I just can’t fucking do this. Did I do something? Because I honestly don’t know at this point. Fuck this.”

Connor let his arms drop to his sides and took a deep breath. “You didn’t do anything wrong. That’s the problem.”

Gavin laughed. A short, barking, bitter laugh. “Hey, can I ask you a personal question? Would it kill you if you started making some fucking sense?”

“You are upset.”

“No shit, Sherlock.”

The android sighed and a little wrinkle appeared between his brows. “I’m grateful for the opportunity to get to know you outside of our usual environment. You are… perceptive. You can be surprisingly considerate when you want to be and I like your jokes. Well, most of them.”

“Makes a guy feel special,” Gavin mumbled, frowning and rubbing the back of his neck. A typical human self-soothing gesture.

“Please, allow me to finish. I want to be your friend but I have no guarantee that this… relationship will survive our return home. Humans seem to form bonds with anything that moves under unusual circumstances but in a week you could be back to your usual self and…” Connor looked away because that way it was easier to keep his expression neutral. “I can feel pain now. It’s an emotion I’d rather avoid.”

Gavin blinked. It was amazing how some words strung together could leave him feeling like he just got clocked in the face. He threw his hands in the air. “You know what? Suit yourself. Be like that if you want to. See if I care.” He cared but that didn’t mean Connor had to know about it. “You can sweep the rest of the house for evidence. Kate told me to meet her to show her where the car is ditched so she can take a look at it. She knows something, might as well try to find out what it is.”

“Actually, I’d rather go out, if you don’t mind. I hope to find some place where I could get some signal and contact DPD.” His tone was even and calm and composed and it was pissing Gavin off. “I can search for more evidence when I return.”

“Oh, so now you’re saying I can’t even do something that easy? Great.”

Connor shut his eyes, his LED blinking yellow and the other was very pleased with himself for those two seconds before the guilt set in. “You know that’s not what I meant, Gavin. You are angry. I’ll go now, and we can talk when we’ve both calmed down.”

“Freeze,” he grumbled as Connor made his way to the door.

The android paused and offered him a small, tight-lipped smile. “I’ll come haunt you if I do.”

* * *

  
  


  
  


For a moment, Connor thought Gavin would kiss him. Connor knew he’d let him, and that was why he had to pull away.

He tried to bury his face deeper into the folds of his scarf, kicking himself for insisting on being the one to go outside. It was roughly around fourteen Fahrenheit, which would equal to minus ten degrees Celsius, which would equal to a miserable walk through the woods for the android.

On top of that, Gavin believed that the young woman next to him was hiding something that had to do with Liam’s death and while the human detective would be suspicious of the blue sky on his best day, assuming that people were not telling them everything was usually the only way to get somewhere. Connor agreed that she knew more than she let on. The problem was that he couldn’t shake off the feeling that nobody was flat out lying, either. That would be a first.

Katie was quiet, but occasionally glanced at the android, biting her lower lip.

“It must’ve been a shock,” Connor offered mildly, waiting to see if she’d bite.

“You don’t exaggerate anything, do you?” Her shoulders slumped. “Yeah. I still can’t believe it.”

Connor paused, hesitating between several speech prompts that appeared in his periphery. “Did you know he owned a gun?”

She nodded. “Sure. For protection. He had David get him one in the city not that long ago. But I don’t think uncle ever used it. I mean, before. It never crossed my mind that he’d… I don’t know. Seeing him there it… god, why would he do that?”

_Got you._

“When did you see him?”

At that she started, her eyes widening slightly. “In the morning, when Jade discovered the body. Like everyone else.”

“That’s not possible, since Jade was blocking the door, and then we locked it. It’s something I was wondering about, since Gavin told me Jade heard Liam talking to Circe after David left, but she wasn’t there in the morning." She was looking straight ahead, tense. He was onto something. "That by itself could still be explained, but then you said something strange when detective Reed and I left the living room. Do you remember?”

She gulped and reached up to tuck a stray strand of hair behind her ear. “I don’t know, I didn’t even know what I was saying.”

“You said ‘did uncle do this to himself’?” He mimicked her voice perfectly as he spoke. It was, perhaps, a little cruel, but Gavin had a point. They had to start pushing their suspects.

“I guess I did, if you say so. And so what?”

“It’s a very odd thing to say in this situation. A ‘what happened?’ would make more sense, but you asked if he’d done that to himself. As if you already knew the answer. Maybe you’d like to explain yourself before detective Reed or I start coming up with explanations of our own.”

“You don’t mean to say that I’d-” The girl’s eyes welled up with tears. She sniffled and wiped her nose into her sleeve like a child would. “Fine. I don’t think it’s all that important, but I found him before Jade did. He was already... It was about half past four in the morning. I wanted a glass of water, so I went to the kitchen and I heard Circe scratching at the door from the inside. I let her out of the living room and he… I thought he was asleep, but… Then I panicked. I took Circe and went back to my room. I should’ve done something, but I got scared.” She sniffed again. “God, I’m so dumb.”

“Are you sure you didn’t leave anything out?”

“Yes,” Katie retorted, her lips drawn into a tight line. A little sigh of relief condensed in the chilly air when she spotted Gavin’s car, already half-buried under a thick layer of snow. “Here it is. Now, don't worry, your car’s as good as fixed. I learnt from the best.” She started sweeping the snow off the hood of the car and Connor quickly stepped in to help.

“The best?” he asked, even though he knew she was just deflecting.

“David. He won’t let anyone touch his darling, but he taught me a lot when I was younger. He knows everything there's to know about cars.”

“Is there anything I can do to assist?”

“Nah, not really.” Katie paused. “You see that slope over there?” she asked, careful to avoid eye contact. “This is where Jade and I go when we need cell service. If you were interested.”

Interested? He could weep with joy. “There are some people I should contact,” he said simply. “But will you be all right here on your own?”

Kate nodded, trying to put on a brave face. She probably just wanted to be alone for a while, or at least away from him. “I’ll come pick you up when I fix the car. Might take a while, though.”

Reassured, Connor headed towards the slope. The signal was weak but it would do and besides that, he knew exactly who was the first person he wanted to talk to. Just picking that number from his contact list made him feel calmer.

“Hank?”

  
  


  
  


* * *

  
  


  
  


Not. Not. Not. Not. His. Brightest. Idea. Idea. Not. Brightest. His.

Not. His. Brightest. Idea.

Kate half helped, half pulled Connor out of the now functioning car and pushed him towards the house, bombarding him with a steady stream of words he wasn’t quite able to process. They came to him in disjointed chunks “all men are the same”, “why didn’t you send your boyfriend if you knew you’d go full icicle” and “why didn’t you say something”. He had a long talk with Hank and after that he had so many things he wanted to check regarding their case, and although he didn’t find anything new, he was at least able to confirm that, yes, David Sykora did buy the gun his brother was killed with. Hank also promised that he’d find out who’s in charge of the area and send someone to Liam’s place as soon as it was safe to do so. Apparently, the snowstorm hit the city much harder. It was already getting dark and all of his internal warnings decided to be as unhelpful as possible, cluttering his vision.

Not. Idea. Brightest. Boyfriend. Idea. Idea? Idea.

_Not. His. Boyfriend._

“He’s. Not.”

She rolled her eyes and her ponytail bounced as she shook her head. “ _That’s_ what you choose to argue about? Unbelievable.”

They stumbled into the hallway and suddenly there was a pattern over his vision, the names of all people on the photos on the wall obstructing his view. His systems didn’t know what to do first, so they kept trying to finish everything at once, with mixed results. He forced himself to blink and his vision cleared again. Clear. Clear. Clear.

“Connor?” came Gavin’s voice as he rushed down the stairs. There was a tightness to his voice. Worry. It made the android feel a little warmer, even though his systems didn’t want to reflect it. “What happened? Are you all right?”

“Yes. Yes. Yes.”

Kate, closely followed by Gavin, dragged Connor to the kitchen where she made him sit down and got started on making him some tea to warm him up. Circe snuggled up to him, purring, while Gavin stayed at the door, shuffling his feet nervously. “What’s wrong with him?”

“It got too cold and we weren’t together, so I didn’t notice,” Katie admitted. “This used to happen to Jade all the time when she first came here. He just needs to warm up and he’ll be right as rain in no time at all.”

“I. I. I. Am. Still. Still. Here. Here. Here.” With great difficulties, Connor turned his head and looked at Gavin. The other was watching him with a scowl, rubbing the scar on his nose. “Kate. Kate. Kate. Kate. Kate. Was on. On the.”

“You should take him upstairs,” she said hastily and pushed the steaming mug into Gavin’s hands.

If Connor could get his face to cooperate, he’d chuckle. As if Reed would pass up the opportunity to grill a witness or even a potential suspect over an android experiencing some issues. Gavin’s grip on the mug tightened.

“I will, but we’ll talk later.”

Almost mechanically, Connor got up, trying to show he was perfectly fine. “Dete. Ctive. Gavin. The scene. On the scene. First. First. First.”

Detective Reed loosely draped an arm around his shoulders and manoeuvred him out of the kitchen as he glared at Katie over his shoulder. “I’m not done here. Stay in town.”

Without realising it, Connor leaned against him, chasing the warmth of the other’s body. How they made it upstairs, he wouldn’t be able to recall later. There was the faint thud of Connor’s shoes landing somewhere on the floor under the bed. Pale blue ceiling. The scent of the tea. All he could focus on was the slight give of the mattress underneath him, and the weight of blankets as he found himself tucked in.

Gavin sat on the edge of the bed and hesitantly placed his hand on the android’s forehead, though he wasn’t sure what he was trying to achieve with that. His skin felt cold to touch, but Gavin couldn't tell whether that was a bug or a feature. The faintest sigh escaped Connor’s lips and he managed to reach up and put his hand over the human’s.

“You’re like a fucking cat, do you know that?” he grumbled, but not without traces of fondness leaking through the cracks. He chuckled at the look the other gave him. “A cat with puppy eyes. Always so extra.”

“Gavin,” Connor forced out. “Kate. The scene. The scene. Gavin. The scene.”

“You mean she discovered the corpse before everybody else, right?”

A nod in response. He was honestly impressed at how quickly the human figured out what he was trying to say.

“Thought so. She told you?”

Another nod.

“Good job. Did she say anything else?”

Connor shook his head. “No. But. No. But. No. But. There is. More. I think. I think. More. You. You. You. You need. Need to. Talk. To her.” Increasingly frustrated, he turned his face away. Since he wasn’t quite ready to give up the warmth of Gavin’s hand, the motion pulled the other closer and it was only by chance that Gavin didn’t collapse on top of the android.

“Why are you like this?” he grumbled, though it was unclear whether he was talking to Connor or to himself. After a moment, he decided that the day had been already so goddamn weird, and lowered himself onto the mattress next to Connor, so the android wouldn’t dislocate Gavin’s shoulder the next time he decided to move his head. “Before you ask, I did have a look around.”

“Snooping?” Connor asked, inching closer to him. Gavin pretended not to notice that the android was using him as a portable heater. Now he was thinking about it, he woke up that morning with Connor pressed against his side, too. He tried not to jump to any conclusions.

“It’s only snooping when you get caught,” he joked as he finally moved his hand away. “Anyway, we got this year’s strongest contestant for the most unnecessary murder.” Before the other could ask, he clarified: “Liam was dying. His night-stand is chock-full of some… I think opioids. Palliatives. I recognised the box because it came up in a case recently. Junkies love them. It shouldn’t be hard to check – if he was getting prescription medicine, there will be a paper trail. Jade used to take him to town, so I guess he might’ve been seeing a doctor.”

“But. Why. Why. Why? Would. But. Someone? Murder. Murder. Someone. Dying. Already? Already? Already?”

“Fuck me if I know. Maybe the murderer didn’t know.” Beat. “You know, when I told you to freeze, I didn’t mean it literally. C’mere.”

It was very much an invitation. Gavin knew that. Gavin intended it that way. Gavin expected what would happen should the android choose to accept it. As it turned out, Gavin was an idiot with dumb fucking ideas, because when Connor nestled his head under his chin, he suddenly didn’t know what to do with himself. He draped an arm around the blanket burrito his… co-worker? friend? crush? had turned into and only when he felt his breath on his neck did he remember to breathe himself. It wouldn’t _need_ to mean anything but for now it was everything.

“Feeling any better?” he asked softly after a while.

“Perfect,” came a muffled reply.

That was the moment when he could salvage what was left of his reputation, hell, dignity, and make a jab at the other, some kind of a half-baked joke toeing the line between funny and really fucking mean, anything to force some distance back before Connor could do it first.

“I’m glad,” he said instead. Gingerly, he touched the android’s cheek, running his thumb from one delicate beauty mark to the next. Connor’s LED flashed yellow, but it turned back to blue almost immediately. The guarded look disappeared from his eyes and Gavin was convinced he might die on the spot.

“When we? Get back. Home.” Connor started watching Gavin, unblinking. The human waited for him to finish, unsure how fast exactly he’d regain the ability to speak smoothly. Strange. A few months back it would piss him off, but now he mostly worried. (Although he was a little pissed off at the android too, for making him worry like that.) Connor didn’t continue, but he could guess what he was trying to ask.

“It won’t be the same and thank fuck for that. You hate it here and I miss my shitty cat.” A grin tugged at the corners of his lips at the excited look Connor gave him. “Yeah, I have a cat. She’s the worst. What I’m trying to say is that it might be better, not worse. You… look, you don’t have to trust me, but I’m a stubborn asshole, so don’t expect me to give up easily.”

“What’s your. Cat. Cat’s? Name. Name?”

“Lara. She’s black with those kinda white socks.” He reached into his pocket for his phone. “Wait, I think I might have a picture of her somewhere.” Well, to be fair, Gavin knew he had several pictures of Lara on his phone, or rather, all the pictures on his phone were of Lara. “You know,” he mumbled, mostly to himself, “that reminds me of something.” He kept flipping through the pictures, trying to find the best one. For some reason, it was really important to him that Connor would find the cat cute. “Liam has a _lot_ of photos of his sister-in-law. Like, a really weird amount.”

“Mean? What do you. Mean?”

“I guess it wouldn’t be so weird, weren’t it for the placement. The entry hall, the mantelpiece… fuck, he even has one in his bedroom. All places that you’d look at a lot.” Reluctantly, he sat up, because being that close to the other was just a little too distracting. “And Kate said he wasn’t on the best of terms with his brother since she died.” He handed the android his phone. “This is Lara, by the way.”

His brown eyes lit up, but even so Connor managed to stay on track. “You think. You think.”

“Sometimes.”

Connor huffed and rolled his eyes. “You think the victim. Was in love. With. His? Brother’s? Wife?”

“He never married, the only family he keeps around is practically her carbon copy, he’s got a creepy amount of her pics all around the house and his relationship with his brother went to hell around the time she died.”

“An affair?”

Gavin took back his phone and slipped it into his pocket. “Can’t tell, but I think Liam blamed David for her death.”

“Everyone. Did.”

“But Irene was the one driving the car when it crashed,” Gavin pointed out. He had an idea, but he was reluctant to share it in case it was too out there and Connor would laugh him out of the room over it. Well, he had to try.

“They’d been. Fighting. And they were. Both drunk.”

“I don’t think she was driving. Jade told me he was a car-fucker.” Connor raised an eyebrow. “Not these exact words.”

“Kate told me something. Very similar. Earlier.”

“The point is, I don’t think he’d let her drive. But he crashed the car while drunk. He’d definitely lose his licence and he’d go to jail if he was behind the wheel. The ambulance was nowhere in sight. Maybe he switched places with his wife. She was dying, maybe dead already. She wouldn’t be able to tell anyone.”

“We don’t know. If it’s. True. True. Though.”

“Maybe it’s not, but Liam could come to the same conclusion.” Gavin deflated somewhat. “I can’t prove it, but it’s something we should keep in mind when establishing the motive.”

“The motive. Do we? Need the motive.” Connor had a point. The motive usually wasn’t a priority concern during criminal investigation. Courts, on the other hand, loved a good motive. A compelling story could sway the jury more than scientific evidence, which could be… honestly awful. But sometimes a motive pointed them in the right direction and in a case as hopelessly odd as that one they had to try everything. He knew that as well as Gavin did. “Kate. Jade. Money.”

“Yea, but I’m not convinced. There’s no indication either of them needs to get their inheritance quickly. But David doesn’t have a particularly strong motive himself, unless I’m right. Maybe Liam threatened to tell.”

“He bought the gun. Kate told me.” Connor took a deep breath. He was already feeling better, although slowed down. Blurry around the edges. Heavy. “I don’t think. Think they’re lying. Because if they were. They’d be covering for. Each other and not David.” He propped himself up on his elbows, looking up at the human detective. “And it’s strange. That there were no fingerprints on the gun. Not even partial fingerprints. Liam’s fingerprints should be on it. Maybe David’s. Too.”

“Well, you’re in luck, because I got you something.” Gavin leaned over Connor and opened the top drawer of the night-stand on Connor’s side of the bed. He produced a crumpled paper tissue stuck inside of a small plastic bag. “I went back to the scene. Remember that fireplace? I checked the basket for firewood and found this. I’m not sure, but it looks like there’s trace amounts of blood and gunpowder on it.”

The android reached for the bag, struggling to open it with stiff fingers. “Give me. A minute. I’ll tell you. In a minute.”

Gavin swiped it and tossed it on the night-stand on his side of the bed, out of Connor’s reach. “You won’t be analysing shit right now.”

“I assure. Assure. Assure you. I’m. Fine.” That strange, static noise again – though now it sounded frustrated. “I assure you. I’m fine, dete. De. Dete. Detect. _Gavin_.”

He patted the other’s shoulder. “Can’t you just, I don’t know, take a nap or something?”

“I do. Not. Not! Sleep. Not.” But the more they talked, the more glitchy his voice got and from the way Connor’s brow twitched, the android was aware of that too.

“You can call it Stasis Litetm, just stop being an idiot about this. We’ve got time. Nobody’s going anywhere.”

They looked at each other in silence until Connor sighed and nestled down in the blankets. His eyes fluttered closed and it looked as if he’d fallen as- as if he’d entered stasis. Gavin watched over him for a minute, then quietly shifted on the bed, and was about to get up. Connor opened one eye.

“Stay? Stay? Stay?”

Gavin hesitated. Not because he wanted to leave, but because it dawned on him that he’d do about anything Connor asked of him as long as his reflection was trapped in those warm brown eyes, and he didn’t know how he’d ever recover from that.

He stayed.


	4. I Know It's Over

When Connor emerged from stasis (or Stasis Litetm), his internal clock cheerfully announced that it was 18:27. All systems functioning at optimal levels. The room was mostly dark, save for a square of silver light as crisp winter moonlight poured in through the window, and a light blue square by his side, illuminating Gavin’s face as he was sitting cross-legged next to him, frowning at the screen of his old Nokia, typing furiously. Connor quickly closed his eyes again. He couldn’t believe how he acted before the detective managed to bully him into resting. The other had to be extremely worried to put up with the android like he had. And the worst of it was that he found it… nice. Connor _l_ _iked_ the feeling of the human’s hand on his cheek and the texture of his sweater against his skin. The warmth, the closeness, and the camaraderie – three things he wouldn’t expect detective Reed to be capable of, but the human apparently made it his personal mission to surprise him as many times as he could in those last twenty-four hours.

“Still pretending to be in stasis?” Gavin asked casually without looking away from his phone.

“Maybe. I haven’t decided yet.” A pause. Connor cracked an eye open to watch the other’s reaction. He was pointedly ignoring him, but he’d stopped typing. “I’m sorry for how I acted when Kate and I returned, and I hope my behaviour didn’t cause you any discomfort.”

“It won’t get awkward if you don’t mention it.” Gavin cleared his throat and ran a hand through his hair, messing it up beyond help. It was too dark to tell for sure, but Connor would swear the other was blushing. “While you were getting your beauty sleep, I tried to review what we know about the case.”

Connor sat on his heels, hands resting on his knees, his back straight and his head tilted to the side. “Detective?” he asked, hesitant. “Gavin? Can I ask you something?”

“You just did-”

“Are you attracted to me?”

The human sputtered, choked on his spit and dropped his Nokia. Connor hoped it wouldn’t make a dent in the floor. “What kinda question is that? What the fuck Connor? You don’t just go around asking people if they’re attracted to you. Christ.”

Connor blinked slowly. “My apologies. I didn’t mean to offend.” But the idea already crossed his mind, looked around, and decided to make a nest at the forefront of his mind. It would explain the spike in positive interactions between them, how the other would get flustered in his presence for no apparent reason, and, well, Connor was _made_ to be more observant than most. He didn’t miss out on the fact that detective Reed didn’t outright deny his hypothetical attraction. It made him feel… flattered? He held that word against the tender, curious warmth that possibility elicited in him, just to see if it fit. It didn’t, but he couldn’t think of a better one. Not at the moment. “Did the review yield any results?” he asked in an attempt to redirect the conversation into calmer waters.

“Yeah. It’s bullshit. If everyone is telling the truth, then Liam has no business being dead. But Jade and I moved the body to the basement while you were gone and I can confirm he’s not getting any deader. And the worst is that I don’t think anyone’s lying. Hiding shit? Sure. But not lying.” He spread his arms, looking up at the ceiling, his lips drawn into a tight line. Even in the relative dark of the room, Connor could sense the other was frustrated, but the frustration seemed to be directed inwards. “Guess I can’t rely on my instincts any more.”

“Then try relying on me this time,” Connor said softly, asking Gavin with a gesture to hand over the bag with that crumpled tissue. “What you are referring to as your instinct is a combination of your own innate aptitude and years of experience. It’s not something that can just disappear. And if it makes any difference to you, I agree that, if nothing else, everyone we’ve talked to believes they’re telling the truth.”

“David’s so lucky he ran for the hills before shit went down. There’s so much of him all over this case and he doesn’t even have the balls to be here and catch some heat.”

“Not everyone you dislike is a criminal, Gavin.”

“Well, there goes the whole American legal system.”

Connor chuckled at the joke, even though it wasn’t Gavin’s finest one, and the human caught himself smiling too. Fuck. He had it _bad_. He didn’t even realise how bad he’d had it for the android until fate (a snowstorm, a shitty car, and an even shittier murder) forced them to cooperate. And once he knew, it was impossible to ignore – like a blister, or the fact that the live action version of _The Simpsons_ used the props from the musical version of _CSI: Miami_.

“The point is,” Gavin continued, “that David brought in the murder weapon. His fingerprints were on one of the glasses on the crime scene. He was heard arguing with the victim before said victim died. Everyone under this roof knows their relationship was horrible. Under normal circumstances, I’d be like ‘is anyone gonna arrest that?’ and wouldn’t even wait for the answer.”

Connor opened the plastic bag. Gavin was correct in his initial assumption – there were traces of both gunpowder and Liam’s blood on it. “It’s usually the one you most suspect,” Connor mused. “But now we know Kate wiped the murder weapon.”

“Why do… oh, yea. Liam wouldn’t be able to and-”

“-and Jade wouldn’t need to-”

“-while David couldn’t do it either because Liam was still alive when he ran for the hills. Fucking amazing how this narrows it down without explaining anything. I mean, there’s Kate, but she was in bed already by the time Liam died and, anyway, she didn’t have any real reason to kill him, least of all now with cops in the house. There’s no end of fatal accidents you could stage here, and nobody would have to know.” With a sigh, Gavin got out of the bed and started searching for his phone. A dark phone on a dark carpet in a dark room is surprisingly difficult to locate and the pointlessness of it all was only adding to his frustration. They were walking in circles, Connor was playing Spanish inquisition with him and now his phone decided to just disappear. “Where are you, you piece of shit?” he mumbled under his breath.

“Wouldn’t it be easier with the lights on?” Connor asked. Gavin wanted to scream. About to say something biting, he raised his head abruptly, and banged it against the edge of the bed. Bright sparks exploded in front of his vision and the string of curses that spilled out of his mouth would surely impress nine out of ten linguists.

“Of fucking course it would be easier with the lights on,” he growled, reaching blindly for the switch on the bedside lamp, rubbing the top of his head. No blood, and the hit wasn’t too serious, but it still hurt like a bitch. “You don’t have to tell me that.”

“Is it something I did or is it just that the case is bothering you?” the android asked cautiously as he reached out, nudged Gavin’s hand aside and turned the light on himself.

The lamp gave off little light, just a small, amber circle, but it was enough. He found his phone (in the same spot he’d been glaring at for the past fifteen seconds) and rested his forehead against the edge of the bed. His hands itched to punch something, see if it made things clearer.

“Kingdom for a good old-fashioned red ice stabbing,” Gavin grumbled instead. Suddenly, there was the slightest weight of a hand on his shoulder. He stiffened under the gentle touch, but then relaxed. Deep breaths. He passed the phone to Connor, his notes still on the screen. “Could swear I almost got it, but the only possible killer that works with what we know is just way too out there. I mean, unless one of us did it.”

Connor looked at Gavin, startled, but then he realised the other was only joking. He wouldn’t call himself an expert, no way, but he was slowly learning to understand Reed’s brand of humour.

In an overly serious tone, he replied: “And I would’ve gotten away with it, too.”

The other cracked a grin. So it _was_ the right answer. Only then it occurred to the android that his hand was still on the other’s shoulder, and while Gavin made no attempt to push it away, he withdrew his hand anyway and focused on the blue glowing screen in front of him. Reed didn’t almost solve it. He _did_ solve it, though it was debatable whether he himself was aware of it just yet.

He was about to say something, when there came a knock on the door and Katie’s voice.

“Are you two all right in there? Jade made dinner.”

They exchanged a look. It was time to get some answers.

  
  


* * *

  
  


  
  


They gathered in the kitchen rather than in the dining room. Now, with their numbers reduced, they fit just fine around the old wooden table, especially since Jade couldn’t stay still and instead walked aimlessly around the room, straightening up items that didn’t need straightening, and occasionally looking out of the window with vacant eyes.

The next day couldn’t come soon enough. The local police would show up, they’d talk to them, and drive off into the metaphorical sunset. Or maybe literal. The roads were bad and days were short in winter. Gavin and Connor didn’t have the time to discuss how to approach the question of destroyed fingerprints, but as long as they worked as a team-

“So, Kate, why did you wipe the gun?”

-or Connor could just ask. Yeah. Sure. Whatever.

The girl raised her head, eyes wide in terror, giving the two detectives that infamous deer-in-the-headlights look. Her fork fell to the floor with a loud ‘clank’. “What? Why would I do that? I didn’t. I didn’t do it.”

Gavin glanced at Connor and slightly raised an eyebrow. In response he got an almost imperceptible nod. He reached into his pocket for the plastic bag with the paper tissue inside and showed it to the two women. “You were the only one who could. Do you recognise this?”

There was a long pause as Kate stared blankly at the tissue, gnawing at her lower lip. Then, as if a long internal battle came to an end, she sighed, her shoulders drooping a little. “I might have. I remember picking up that thing, like, it didn’t… I thought he was asleep. But he wasn’t. I don’t know what… it must’ve been me. I… I had a pack of tissues in my pocket. I left it in the basket where we keep firewood. I thought I’d burn it later. Am I in trouble? I wasn’t thinking when…”

Gavin slammed his hand on the table. “Did you or did you not tamper with the evidence?”

She hung her head. “Yes. I picked up the gun without thinking, and then I got worried about how it might look if my fingerprints were on it.”

“Didn’t it occur to you that you might get miss Locard in trouble with that stunt?” Connor asked mildly.

Katie blinked and her hand shot up to cover her mouth. “Jade? God, no. It never crossed my mind, if it had, I’d never...”

Silence. The girl looked around herself with pleading eyes. “I swear, I wouldn’t! Jade, you know that, right?”

The other woman left that unanswered. She turned away from Kate, and started absentmindedly rearranging the spice rack, her LED blinking yellow. Gavin felt a hint of gratitude that he didn’t need to be involved in _that_ discussion.

“Jade?” Katie whispered, getting up from her seat. The android slammed down a jar of chilli and turned over her shoulder, her dark eyes narrowed.

“Don’t.”

“I didn’t mean to cause any trouble for you.”

“You’d throw me under the bus. How can you not see that?” She crossed her arms over her chest, glaring at her. “Most police officers wouldn’t even _consider_ other options the second they thought I might’ve had something to do with Liam’s death, and I’m supposed not to be mad? No, thanks.”

Kate sank back into her chair, her hands limp on her lap. “But he did it to himself, so why does it matter what I did or didn’t do?”

Connor jumped in before Gavin could, speaking in that slow, deliberate manner that could either soothe or unnerve. “Kate, all deaths that appear to be unnatural must be investigated to rule out foul play. You know that already. We’re not trying to upset you, we only want to make sure that we didn’t leave any room for doubt regarding the circumstances of Liam’s death. Local authorities will get here tomorrow, and the faster they leave again, the better, don’t you think?”

“Is there?” the girl mumbled, tugging at the tip of her ponytail impatiently. “Any room for doubt?”

The android hesitated. Sometimes he got that faraway, unfocused look, and in those moments Gavin thought he could almost see him trying to calculate the answer which would yield the best possible outcome. As endearing as it was, it made Gavin wonder what was going on in that head of his sometimes. And it stung, knowing that instead of trying to get along he’d wasted so much time antagonising the other for no reason – that is to say, he used to have a reason, several of them, but he knew now how flimsy those were. Hate for hate’s sake.

“Yes,” Connor said after a while. Silence settled over the kitchen, so thick he could almost hear the wind wailing outside. “Enough to warrant further inquiry, at least. The absence of fingerprints on the gun found with the body was one such irregularity.”

Jade uncrossed her arms and sat on the counter, pointedly ignoring Kate. “Wait, you can’t mean that somebody murdered him. That’s… that’s simply...”

“Preposterous?” Connor offered.

“Well I meant to say stupid, but yeah.” She ran a hand through her hair. In that light it looked almost colourless. Her LED had gone back to blue a while back and the feelings settled down like dust, leaving her drained. “Pointless, too. He...” Jade hesitated. “He asked me not to say anything, but he didn’t have much time left.”

“You knew about it.” Normally, Gavin would go off at her for concealing potentially vital information, but couldn’t bring himself to do it. Maybe it had something to do with the house. A sad, isolated place. Lonely people. Rotten comforts. Cosy like third-degree burns.

Cold seeping in.

“Yeah. A while back we were in the city and I guess he was seeing his doctor about something. He showed up at our meeting place late and drunk. He wouldn’t give me any details, but he told me he had about six months at most. I think he only told me because I was there. I assumed he’d tell Kate once he felt up to the task, so I kept it to myself.”

Cold seeping in.

“And neither of you thought to tell me? I can’t believe you!” Kate spoke fast, but it looked like she was about to cry. Again.

Cold seeping in.

One pale eyebrow twitched. “Yes, that’s right, I really enjoyed knowing something like this while being unable to confide in anyone.” It looked as if Jade wanted to say something more, but then she just shook her head. “You know what? I’ve had enough.” With that, she jumped off the counter, stormed out of the room, and slammed the door behind herself.

Cold seeping in.

  
  


  
  


* * *

  
  


  
  


Connor’s LED was the brightest spot in the dimly lit living room. Even after the body was moved to the basement, Gavin subconsciously avoided touching – or even looking at – the couch. So he watched the blue light instead.

The light moved as Connor looked directly at the other detective. “In the end, the only one lying here was Liam.”

“’t was pretty stupid of me to rule him out right at the start.”

“I think anyone would make this mistake. That was the point.” The android glanced at the two empty glasses on the coffee table. “I should’ve realised it sooner. We saw Liam move the glasses from the dining room, presumably to be washed, but he brought them here instead, because he knew David’s fingerprints would be on one of them. That’s why he had David buy him the gun, too – his fingerprints would’ve been on it. They were heard arguing right before he died. He wanted everything to point towards his brother.”

“He knew he was dying and the last thing he wanted to do was to get revenge. Can you imagine?”

“I’d rather not try.” Connor tilted his head to the side, scanning the couch. There was still a noticeable stain, almost black in the dim light. “To him, it was probably the only way to get justice for Mrs Sykora with how little time he had left. Maybe a way to minimise his own suffering, too.”

A left-handed man could still pull the trigger with his right index finer, and they both just ignored that. Scowling, Gavin put his hands into his pockets and turned his attention to the row of photographs on the mantelpiece opposite the couch. “David was lucky he left without telling anyone. And the bastard doesn’t even know how lucky.” He wanted to ask Connor what his thoughts were. Would it be justice? But he stopped himself before he could – some questions had too many sharp edges. “For how long do you think Liam suspected David?”

Connor gave a small shrug. “He was better acquainted with his habits, so it’s likely he suspected from the start that Mrs Sykora didn’t drive the car when she died. But he couldn’t prove it.” It felt as if though the room had gotten colder, although his systems insisted the temperature remained unchanged. “He had to be planning this for some time. Though I have to wonder what he and David argued about if it made David leave in the middle of the night without telling anyone.”

“Yea, I’m pretty sure we both know who the argument was about,” Gavin said under his breath, looking at the photo in the middle of the row of pictures on the mantelpiece. It was from David and Irene’s wedding – the bride was standing between her husband and her brother-in-law, so it was unclear which of those two she was marrying.

He didn’t notice Connor moved to stand next to him until the android spoke up. “Earlier it occurred to me that those photographs were the last thing he saw before he died. It’s… sad.”

“I don’t think that’s a coincidence,” Gavin replied. Then he paused, his brows furrowed. “Y’know, sometimes I think you guys underestimate how horribly sentimental humans are.” He walked towards the mantelpiece, picked up the photo, and started taking apart the frame that encased it.

A small white envelope fell out and landed at his feet. Connor came to pick it up before Gavin could, and he held it up between two fingers so both of them could read the writing on it. The hand that wrote it was heavy, with a hint of tremor.

_\- to Kate_

They exchanged a look and Connor slipped the envelope into his pocket, making a note to deliver it later. Only about one third of suicide victims left behind a note, but that still meant that about one third of suicide victims _did_ leave a note. And Liam turned out to be one of them. “He had no guarantee anyone would ever find this,” he said quietly, thinking aloud. “And if anyone did find it, all the work he put into trying to frame his brother would be for nothing. It makes no sense.”

Gavin gently nudged his elbow and shook his head, smiling weakly. “People making sense. That’d be new. And hand over that note, it’s evidence.”

Connor did not, in fact, hand over the note, but he opened it all the same. If either of them expected a confession or gloating, they’d be sorely disappointed, as it contained only a handful of loving, almost fatherly words addressed to the girl Liam had come to love like his own daughter. But still, it was evidence, at least until the official inquest was over, and for now it was for the best that Connor kept it on his person, where it was less likely to get contaminated or lost.

There was nothing left to do, but to lock the living room again and wait for the release of a new day, when the woods would – hopefully – finally spit them out and let them go home.

  
  


  
  


* * *

  
  


  
  


Neither of the two spoke much when they made it back to the guest room. Connor sat on the floor right next to the overworked portable heater (like a cat, Gavin noted) and started writing down the findings they came to over the past twenty-four hours, so they could share them with the local authorities without unnecessary delays.

The other detective went to bed, since he “did not nap the afternoon away like some people”. This time Connor picked up on the teasing in that statement easily and, without looking up from his work, he shot back with:

“I wasn’t napping, I entered Stasis Litetm.”

A muffled snort came from the direction of the bed. “Keep using my own words against me and I’ll leave you here.”

“You wouldn’t.”

Silence. Connor looked up and was met with the sight of Gavin watching him, his expression uncharacteristically soft. The scene had an unreal quality. The human sighed, but almost… fondly. “No, I wouldn’t.” Then he closed his eyes and wrapped the blanket tighter over himself, faint red staining his cheeks.

Connor went back to his report, smiling. Suddenly, the place didn’t feel so cold.

  
  


  
  


* * *

  
  


  
  


**Epilogue**

  
  


They arrived at work hopelessly late by Connor’s standards and disgustingly early by Hank’s.

The previous day, Gavin and he didn’t make it home until late in the evening when they were both tired and sick to death of dealing with the local police. They’d managed to get home without further incidents, and when Gavin dropped him off at Hank’s, Connor was astonished by the wave of relief that hit him when he could feel the familiar pavement under his feet. The relief was soon replaced by mild annoyance, because he stepped into some slush he didn’t see in the dark and one of his shoes immediately filled with it. It made sloshing noises as he walked to the front door.

But he was happy to be back in Detroit where signal was so omnipresent he didn’t even have to think about it and where trees knew their place. Nothing had changed during his brief absence.

Speaking of things that didn’t change...

Detective Reed sauntered into the office without acknowledging anyone, and plopped into his seat like he owned the place. Not even a nod in greeting. Connor sighed, and forced himself to return back to the work that piled up on his desk while he was away, ignoring the human.

Hours passed, and they were still ignoring each other.

Absolutely _nothing_ had changed and Connor shouldn’t have allowed himself to expect anything else, because, of course, now that they were both in their natural habitat the relationship between them was doomed to wither and die, the way he predicted. He also predicted he’d would respond negatively to the loss of that connection and, frankly, being so right all the time got exhausting sometimes.

“You all right there, son?” Hank asked, trying to sound casual. It wasn’t working.

“Yes, sure, why?”

“Because I’ve been trying to get your attention for the past ten minutes.”

 _Huh_. Time flies when you’re overanalysing everything. “I’m sorry. I didn’t sleep well.”

“Connor, you don’t sleep.”

“That would explain why I’m not very good at it.”

Hank rolled his eyes and pushed his chair away from the desk, then got up and started gathering his things. “Yeah, that sounds believable. I’m getting lunch, do you wanna come with?”

He didn’t eat, and unlike some other models, he didn’t opt for any related upgrades after the revolution. He knew a few androids who could at least, to some extent, experience flavour thanks to an app that would start a chain of different visual or auditory associations depending on what they tasted. Given the sort of things Connor usually put into his mouth at work, he decided that even his curiosity had its limits. What he did enjoy were the social aspects of eating with someone and Hank knew it, so he’d often let Connor tag along and lecture him on the dangers of literally everything that tasted good. Even now, Connor was about to grab his jacket and join the lieutenant when a notification popped up on the screen of his computer. A new e-mail. From detective Reed.

“I’ll catch you later,” he said distractedly, his eyes glued to the screen.

  
  


**Subject:** a personal question

_so, you come here often?_

  
  


Connor looked at the detective, eyebrows raised in surprise. The other maintained a neutral expression, leisurely typing something with one hand while the other hand blindly grasped around the desk for the coffee cup that was just out of reach.

  
  


**Subject:** Re: a personal question

_Detective Reed,_

_we are at work._

_Regards,_

_Connor Anderson_

  
  


He hit ‘send’ and was rewarded with the sight of Gavin grinning, taking a sip of the too-hot coffee and immediately looking like he regretted every single one of his life decisions.

  
  


**Subject:** Re: Re: a personal question

_Detective Anderson,_

_I don’t know if I care right now._

_Regards,_

_Gavin Reed_

_PS: Are you busy after work? I want you to meet my cat. I tidied up, promise._

  
  


Connor caught himself smiling without knowing why. Maybe (and that was a big maybe), his predictions weren’t as accurate as what he was used to. Then again, it was always something new with Gavin.

  
  


**Subject:** Re: Re: Re: a personal question

  
  


_Detective Reed,_

_I would love to meet your cat._

_Regards,_

_Connor Anderson_

  
  


  
  


**Subject:** Re: Re: Re: Re: a personal question

  
  


_Connor,_

_I don’t know how to tell you this, but I lied about the tidying._

_Regards,_

_G._

  
  


Connor burst out laughing. He quickly covered his mouth, but the sound already drew the attention of several other officers. His eyes met Gavin’s across the room. The other detective was clearly holding back laughter himself, but when he saw Connor’s face – blue blush glowing through the cracks between his fingers, optical units leaking thirium, looking adorably off balance – Gavin lost the battle and now both of them were laughing like a pair of maniacs.

And it felt damn good.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We've officially reached the end of the story! If you made it this far, thank you ♥ Come say hi to me on  tumblr !

**Author's Note:**

> Come yell at me on tumblr! (nohrianxscum)

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Sunset Tequila](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24331105) by [supernovainparadise](https://archiveofourown.org/users/supernovainparadise/pseuds/supernovainparadise)




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